Storm Brewing

A blizzard is predicted for Thursday, so Sue Mc and I took advantage of a perfect day on Wednesday and painted in the muck, south of the tracks in Alamosa to get this view of the old power plant; lots of melting snow, deep mud, grungy tanker trucks driving by, and men with shovels- this is the best.

It was a dark and stormy night. . .

It seems like ages since I last posted - and it isn't that I haven't been "daily painting", I just haven't had time to post - that's code for - I haven't had a chance to wrestle my panel box, pull out the wet panels, sign them, and wait for a day when it isn't 10 below zero to take photos, kill an afternoon editing photos and writing witty banter. Painting is the easy part.
A large studio piece is near finish in the studio and Sue Mc and I went up to South Fork Monday to do some gallery business with Jan Bock at Mountain Artisans Gallery. Afterwards we pulled the plein air mobile off into a snow bank and pulled out the gear. It must have been a balmy 18 degrees- which was ok- but the wind- oh, the wind- it cuts like a knife. In the end we didn't do any painting but I snapped this shot of Blanca as I drove home. This is why I live in Colorado.

Class Notes, Working from Photos

Knowing how to work from a photo is essential for any painter and though plein air is my favorite way to work, the temps in Alamosa this last month have brought this particular lesson right to the fore.
Some simple rules (they're actually only guidelines)-
1.First and most important - We are NOT copying the photo; it is only reference. Knowing this will change how you look at your photos, how you take them and how you use them. For most beginning painters, using that gorgeous 'calendar' photo, leads to disappointment. You probably can't top it. I prefer to look for photos that have 'good bones'- not a great photo, per se, but one that has strong shapes and things that can be moved around. Which brings me to the next guideline...
2. Make a plan; the artist's job (even when working directly from life) is to select and arrange major shapes to lead the viewer's eye around the painting; this is composition.
Having a few simple compositional ideas in mind beforehand and you will be able to selectively view what is presented and fit it to a design scheme that works. (See past Class Notes: 'Composition' and 'The Big Idea'). It will also keep you from placing elements arbitrarily. Sometimes this involves changing or moving things for the sake of a design idea.
Is that mountain going the wrong direction or are there too many trees? - move or change them. Get rid of what isn't working and only use what does. One good thing about using a photo is that you can use it again and again, make many studies and take some risks.

Class Notes, Working from Photos

The Thursday evening Painting Class used these 2 black and white pieces of photo reference to paint from and each painter came up with a very nice and a very distinctive painting. Not unlike 5 painters in the landscape where you end of with 5 very different views and points of view; photo reference material allows each person the freedom of expression and variation in composition - that is as long as the goal is NOT to copy the photo.

Class Notes, Working from Photos

This small 9"x12",'Up to the Peak', is my (Coni's) painting put together from the above photos. I choose to focus on the mountain is the distance, ignore any of the lower landscape detail and use the trees to frame the setting.

Class Notes, Color Temperature

Temperature is one of the 4 characteristics of color; the others being: Hue (or local color), Intensity (its brightness), and Value (the dark or light of a color).
As we look at the color wheel the yellow, orange, red colors are the warm range and the green, blue, violet colors are considered the cool range. Within each color, however, is a warm and cool version.
For example - RED is considered a warm color but the tube color Alizarin Crimson is a cool version of red, especially when compared with Cadmium Red Light, which is a warm (and quite orange) red. Both are in the RED family, but Alizarin is the cooler and more violet red, while Cad Red Light gives us a warmer version in the same family.
When painting with Alizarin in the landscape or in a still life, try highlighting it with Cad Red Light, thus adding depth to the work and more interest by not only changing color value but changing color temperature.

Daily Painter Goes Out in the COLD

Monday, Sue McCullough and I braved the cold to paint in Alamosa River Canyon. It is amazing to me that it can be about 8 degrees in the valley and actually 10-12 degrees warmer in the mountains. Either way, it was a great day and 2 Bighorn sheep crossed the road right in front of us - beautiful! We painted by the river for a couple of hours (thankfully, in the sunshine) then headed down the hill to paint near the tracks in Monte Vista.
'Below Freezing', 16"x12"oil, $375.
This was my original title but someone suggested that viewers might not want to feel the cold - and it WAS cold. Anyway, I am changing the title to "Sunny Spot". I guess that "feels" better.

Daily Painter at the End of the Day

Monte Vista as the sun dropped low - right into my eyes. I love this kind of stuff.
'Cold Storage', 9"x12"oil, $310.

Coni's Class Notes

Tuesday we painted 4 red apples, each on a different colored background. The color theory of complements tells us that the complement of a color will make that color appear more intense; when you see it for yourself - you really get it.
Thursday morning we painted 4 different colored objects, and painted them on a ground of each color's complement. Ah, the complements; a straight forward choice but always a good one, and for a beginner, the safe one. If you don't know what color to make that underpainting or background? Choose the complement.
At the opposite end of the artistic/philosophical spectrum from Monet, Van Gogh said this about color, “I improvise [on] color... And then my brush goes between my fingers as a bow would on a violin, and absolutely for my own pleasure.”
If we could all paint with that kind of confidence. . . .

Painting Class in the New Year

With the holidays over and a good case of cabin fever, I could not wait for Painting Classes to start. I don't think I am the only one in town feeling this way - both the Tuesday evening and the Thursday morning classes were well attended; fifteen painters on Thursday.
With so much white outside- we are concentrating on color. Claude Monet said this about it“ Color is my day long obsession, joy and torment.”
It can be very much a torment for the beginner and having a good color theory base is essential to moving on as a painter.